There’s a fascinating cross-blog conversation going on right now. Instigated in part, ahem, by yours truly (I’m a born trouble-maker). Actually it’s exactly the kind of ferment that I’ve hoped to get going. I think good things may come of such interactions.
Anyhoo, Pundita got the ball rolling with her stir-the-pot post, “Democracy Stage Show Kit”. Well, Zenpundit weighed in, and now Marc Schulman of American Future has posted his own quite critical reactions to Pundita’s skepticism about the stirrings of democracy in Georgia, Ukraine, and Lebanon. I won’t excerpt these posts—they’re too good. Read ’em and weigh in yourself.
In the comments section of the post on American Future, the ubiquitous praktike makes a typically sound contribution:
well, some people use $6K GDP per capita as a rule of thumb for when a democracy becomes viable. There are exceptions to this rule, of course, so I’m not sure it’s strictly true. Look at Mali and Senegal, for instance.
To which I responded “What was the per capita GDP in the United States in 1790?”. I realized I had the resources to answer my own question. The per capita real GDP in the United States in 1790 was $1,210 (stated in 2000 dollars). We weren’t a rich country. Is democracy here viable? So far, so good. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: R. J. Rummel’s most recent post would appear to be on-point in this discussion.
Hi, I was just wondering where you got the statistic for real GDP in 1790 as the link is broken. If you could send that reference to me via email I would really appreciate it.